My flat mates had moved out and returned to their hometowns, leaving the entire house all to us to occasionally crash in and spend nights together. And I have been staying at Nick's long enough that I felt a certain awkwardness entering my own like I was a stranger here.

"Nick, there's something I gotta tell you," I said to him softly, as we spent our afternoon kissing and cuddling on the sofa bed at the common room, naked. "I've already removed my 'dangerous dates' off the schedule, we don't need to avoid them anymore."

"What do you mean?" he asked puzzled.

We both acknowledged that 'dangerous dates' meant my ovulation dates which we often avoided as other means of contraception (since Nick detested the pills).

"It means any date is a good date to do it," I clarified, biting my bottom lip. "I think I'm ready to be a mommy."

He looked at me for a while in bewilderment before registering my every word. "You're kidding right? You don't have to do this for my sake, Zahida."

"No, Nick. I'm dying to have kids on my own. I just ... wanted a legitimate one, you know. But I know it'd be selfish of me to have it my way after everything you've ever done to me, loving me unconditionally. So yeah, let's do it. Let's have one so you don't have to make Cane's boy as yours."

Nick didn't reply immediate, his hazel eyes sought confirmation through mine before they slowly turned soft and glistened. He bent closer, pressed his kiss against mine as I felt them trembling. "Thank you," he mouthed.

I wiped off his happy tears from his face as we tugged each other tightly, embracing our emotions on the idea of stepping into parenthood impulsively. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I were ready to be a mom, let alone a good one like my parents were. But at that spur moment, I felt confident to be a parent with Nick here by my side.

"Should we start now?" I asked immediately.

"Nope, I need to go back and take my supplements," he released his embrace around me. "I'm gonna make healthy and intelligent offspring with more of my attitude and less of your drama."

"Yeah, go ahead," I agreed. "I don't think having another mini version of me would be a good start for the family."

"I couldn't agree more," he nodded, putting it his shirt. "I also have something to tell you and I hope you'll approve it. I feel that you might."

"Tell me?" I insisted. He opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by several knocks on the front door. He looked at me signalling for the door, but I replied, "Don't answer that. Could be the preachers or those GE people asking to vote for Boris."

"ZJ! ZJ! Open this door," a male voice behind the door shouted in between his raps, alarming me. "I know you're in there. Get out! I'm dying to see you!"

"Well, I think he's specifically looking for you," Nick's face changed. Nick got up as he peered into my room for inspection. My stomach churned, secretly knew who the person behind the door was.

"Nick, don't answer that!" I chastised, quickly putting my lounge dress on. "Nick, stop. Your dick is still exposed!"

But Nick ignored me. He swiftly opened the front door while I remained hidden inside the common room.

"You!" I heard Abs outside gasped at him.

"What's wrong? You used to enjoy gorging it. Why the face?" Nick responded, presumably Abs was surprised to see Nick and his uncovered manhood showed up by the door of my house.

"Where's ZJ?" Abs asked.

"What do you want?" Nick responded coldly.

"I really need to see her. I gotta make sure she's okay," Abs said. I gingerly peeked them through the gap between the common room's door hinges, but Abs caught a sudden movement behind Nick and called out for me.

"Get the fuck inside!" Nick barked at me.

"You don't talk to her like that!" Abs shouted. Then I heard sounds of a struggle between the two men which ended up Abs' getting strangled by Nick.

"Fuck off, Abs! I don't want you here!" I shouted from the common room.

"You heard that?" Nick said to him. "Now piss off!"

Nick slammed the door immediately after throwing Abs out on the pavement in front of the door. As Nick walked into the common room, a few loud kicks thudded on the front door before Abs' silhouette moved across the window and disappeared.

"You alright?" I asked Nick as he entered the room with his face darkened. He didn't respond to my question, didn't even look me in the eye. He took his boxers and trousers before putting them on, respectively. "Nick, what's wrong. What did he say?"

"You clearly heard what he said? Why should I repeat?" he fumed.

"Then, why are you acting this way?" I asked, perplexed.

"Because he came here for you," Nick grunted.